Growing Moral: A Confucian Guide to Life, by Stephen C. Angle

Expand

'Growing Moral' by Stephen C. Angle

The Chinese Communist Party has done Confucianism no favors by adopting it as part of its nationalist agenda. Much like Vladimir Putin and Russian Orthodoxy, the embrace of those ancient principles by a modern tyrant “risks having the values of Confucianism hallowed out to become empty slogans of the ruling party,” according to Stephen C. Angle. The Wesleyan University philosophy professor is a Confucian, not from any ethnic ties but by choice. And he’s determined to present the ancient philosophy in a contemporary as well as a positive light.

Philosophy is the key word, as Confucianism is routinely mis-described as a religion. Its seminal figures, starting with Confucius (Kongzi, 551-479 BCE), claimed no divine revelation and spoke little about God. Their concern was to harmoniously align individuals with family and society. They called for behaving with mutual respect, an attitude of sagacious personal reflection and proposed their own parallel to the Judeo-Christian Golden Rule. As Confucius said, “Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.”

Angle acknowledges that Confucianism—like virtually every philosophy or religion—has been put to bad ends by less enlightened devotees. As a system of thought that evolved over many centuries, it has accumulated digressions and divergent opinions. Angle sees Confucianism as ready for reexamination by shedding the patriarchal assumptions that were inevitable during its development in a patriarchal world. Since self-criticism in inherent in Confucian practice, he is confident that it will “jettison” those aspects “that would otherwise serve as obstacles to the full ethical development of women.”

Angle is an award-winning instructor as well as a scholar. Growing Moral is permeated by his enthusiasm for his subject as well as his knowledge.